Most Popular Artist In Each State

A new interesting batch of data from Business Insider has revealed what the most popular artist in each state is, at least as far as streams on Pandora on concerned. Admittedly this is just a snapshot of the usage of one streaming service, but the numbers are nonetheless fascinating.

If you were to pick who the most popular artist was for your State, you’d probably be wrong if you’re over 25 or so. Business Insider wanted to find out about the most popular artist in each State so they looked at the Pandora Radio for a list of the artists whose Pandora “artist stations” were most frequently added in each of the 50 States this year. It’s a snapshot of what streaming audiences across the country are seeking out the most, although because it’s just one service (and one that’s losing its audience as well) I’m not sure how accurate the information really is. That said, it’s really interesting.

Drake is by far the most popular artist in the country (at least according to Pandora), being the most popular artist in 31 states. Next is Eminem with 10 and Kevin Gates at 7. Bruno Mars and Future each had 1 State.

While not winning any States, a number of other artists broke the top 10 in most States. These include Beyonce, Adele, Bruno Mars, Rhianna, Future, The Weeknd, Chris Brown, Ed Sheeran, Chris Stapleton, Migos, Twenty One Pilots, Five Finger Death Punch, Luke Bryan, and AC/DC (big surprise there), among a few others.

So what does this tell us? Top 40 music is alive and well. It doesn’t matter about the genre so much, but if it’s popular on radio, it will probably be popular with streaming as well. These artists have consistently made music that were hits in that genre, so they end up with the most streams, at least on this one platform.

That said, a quick look at the current Spotify Top 200 US chart finds most of the artists mentioned above, but it’s not dominated by them. Same with Apple Music.

Many thought that streaming would democratize the Top 40 and we’d have more diversity, but it turns out it’s the same as it ever was.